News and Announcements 12/24/11

More on the Google Book case; Florida library outsourced to LSSI; the House delays SOPA; Brill releases BrillOnline.com; e-textbooks a la carte from Bookstep; and some personnel moves from major publishers.

The Google book case which has dragged on since 2007 took another turn on Thursday. Google asked Judge Denny Chin to remove the Author’s Guild and the American Society of Media Photographers from the case, “arguing that copyright infringement lawsuits must be filed by copyright holders themselves, not associations claiming to represent them.” This appears to be an attempt by Google to stop the authors attempt to “transform their lawsuit into a class-action representing a broader range of copyright holders.” According to this article “if Judge Chin allows the class-action lawsuit, Google will face much higher damages.”

“Despite the opposition of library boosters in Osceola County, Florida, to the proposed outsourcing of county library operations there, the county commission has approved a five-year contract with Library Systems and Services, Inc. (LSSI) to run the library. The 3–2 vote to approve the nearly $25-million contract, which LSSI has assured officials will save the county $6 million over five years…”

“The Stop Online Piracy Act has hit a major snag, with the House Judiciary Committee adjourning before it could send the bill to the floor—and setting no date to continue proceedings. It’s not a deathblow—not by a longshot—but it’s a welcome pause for consideration for a bill that has the potential to grow into a digital Patriot Act.”

“Brill, the international scholarly publisher, is proud to announce the release of BrillOnline.com, the brand new resource center for study and research. BrillOnline.com provides the academic user access to Brill’s wide collection of e-books, online journals, online reference works and online bibliographies. At launch BrillOnline.com contains more than 800,000 documents.”

Based on the theory “that students ought to be able to buy just the parts they need” of classroom textbooks, Bookstep, an e-textbook start up, enables students to do just that. “The site offers students several subscription plans, including a pay-as-you-go option and six-month and 12-month full subscriptions. It also adds social networking and study tools, allowing students to connect with other students studying the same materials.”

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